Chapter Text
A 30 second walk later, all four of them were in Nene’s kitchen.
Nene was trying not to freak out.
While she was at the store, she was planning on making chocolates by herself, then giving them to Rui when she next saw him. Then explain the heart and also say that she thinks she likes him.
However, that clearly won’t work if Emu and Tsukasa are there, AND the guy she was making sweets for was helping make them. That basically defeated the point. But whatever. Whatever.
Tsukasa put the bag down on the counter, and Emu started to take the ingredients out. They really are taking the lead...
Nene looked towards the stairs. Her parents were probably out like her mother told her they would be. She looked towards the clock– a quarter past 6. Making chocolates and cleaning up and all would only take a few hours, so her parents probably won’t be back until after the others leave.
The seconds hand on the clock slowly ticked on.
“So, what’s the first step?” Tsukasa asked, washing his hands.
“You two are taking this too seriously, I could’ve made these myself...” Nene mumbled, pulling out her phone to find the recipe again. “We just have to melt the chocolate chips and cream, then pour it into the mold. Then we have to make the filling and pour the chocolate over it again and let it freeze.”
“Should be simple.” Rui walked past her and opened the cupboard. “How big of a pan do we need?”
“I can get it.” Nene walked towards the cupboard as well, reaching for a medium sized pan to melt the chips in. She leaned across towards the side he was standing—
Her arm brushed past his.
Almost all thoughts of not freaking out left her head.
—and grabbed the pot. “Sorry.” She muttered a bit too quickly as she walked away, setting the pan on the stove. It seriously was a miracle her face wasn’t completely red by now, unless it has been since her, Emu and Tsukasa went up to his door and they’ve all been polite enough to not point it out.
Nene went to the stove and turned it on, and grabbed the chocolate melts and cream. She awkwardly looked towards the other three, sort of just standing there. But really, what can she make them do? Melting candy chips seriously isn’t as hard as she thought it would be. If it was this easy, she would’ve just made them herself before rather than buying store bought ones.
“Um... you guys can help find the mold for these. It’s somewhere in the pantry.” She mentally sighed while pointing to the pantry door. At least that would get them away from just staring at her.
“Yes, ma’am!” All three of them replied while Emu and Tsukasa jokingly saluted, walking over to the pantry. Nene mentally sighed in relief again.
This was going to be a long evening…
»»--------->·♡·<---------««
“Ok... we need to leave the chocolates in the fridge for at least 45 minutes.” Nene said, closing the fridge door and walking towards the living room.
“We should play a board game!” Emu jumped up from the sofa. “You have some, right Nene?”
“Yeah, they’re in my room-“
“Emu and I can get them.” Tsukasa also jumped up from the sofa.
Oh my god, please don’t try to leave me and him in the same room right now.
“No, I can get them myself-“
Emu and Tsukasa exchanged a quick glance.
Rui stayed on the coach, watching with a curious expression, his right hand’s fingers tapping against the armrest.
Nene noticed his expression.
Her heart panicked.
What if he finds out?
“Me and Nene will go then.” The pink head said suddenly, grabbing the other girl's arm and pulling her off to her room.
They walked up the stairs, each footstep sounding too loud to Nene. It felt like she could feel Rui's eyes on her.
As soon as the two made it to her room, Nene shut the door. “What was that about?” She whispered.
“What was what?” Emu asked, feigning innocence.
“That. You and Tsukasa are making it so obvious! It’s like Ru-Chocolate already knows about you-know-what.” She said through her teeth. Nene didn’t say what she was going to say in clear words, in case he was somehow even listening from across the house.
“Nene.” Emu put her hands on the girls shoulders. “I’ll be ok! Trust me.”
Nene took a deep breath. She hadn’t realized her heart was beating faster from the fear that he might discover what she was feeling.
“I don’t think I can confess today.” She blurted out.
“...Are you sure? Even earlier today at lunch, it looked like you really wanted to at least talk to him.”
Nene looked at her, recalling how as soon as she tackled her, she lost sight of him.
“Y-yeah... but... I don’t know… And I don’t know how I’m supposed to tell him if you and Tsukasa are here.”
“Don’t worry about me and Tsukasa, I have a plan. It’s ok if you don’t. But try, ok? ♪ “ Emu let go of her and walked towards Nene's shelf. “Now, what game should we choose? Hmm… how about Uno?
“Yeah, sure, anything...” Nene replied absently, the words “I have a plan” going in one ear and going out the other. Emu's other words rang in her mind.
But try, ok?
How was she supposed to try? Just this morning, she was planning on giving the sweets to Rui normally. She didn’t even realize she liked him like that. Then she kept seeing all these romantic things, like girls confessing to their crushes and the love notes on the ground. And then she also got out of class pretty much just to see him. And then she ran into him again after school and chickened out from walking home with him.
Now how was she supposed to confess feelings she only just realized today? She truly felt like a broken record, always thinking of how bizarre it is with her suddenly liking him. It’s like someone cast a spell on her to intensify her feelings within a day.
“Wait, what do you mean you have a plan–” Nene suddenly asked, finally starting to process the other girl's words.
And oh my gosh, what would she do if he wasn’t even interested in her? Ruin their friendship?
What if he rejects her?
“Well, we’ll obviously leave early enough to give you time to tell Rui everything! That’s the plan. Ok, let’s go back down.” Emu replied quickly, and picked up the stack of cards, leaving Nene her and her thoughts to follow.
»»--------->·♡·<---------««
“So, how many cards?” Rui asked, taking the cards from Emu and beginning to deal them out on the floor.
“I say 7. Classic.” Tsukasa says, sitting on the ground.
“Left of the dealer goes first,” Rui says while flipping the first card down. Yellow 2. 6 cards left.
“I’m next then!” Emu exclaimed, while flipping through her own cards, spread out like a handfan. She dramatically pulled a card out, which made a “fwoop” noise and placed it down. Green 2. 6 cards left. “You’re next, Nene.”
Nene made a small noise of agreement. Sitting in a square-circle like formation, being left of Emu and right of Tsukasa meant she was sitting across from Rui. Again, it’s like she could feel his eyes on her, scanning her as if he was able to see what she was thinking. He looked at her hand that was holding her cards all together in one stack, unlike Emu’s, which were spread out.
“Um...” She mumbled, flipping through her cards before quickly placing one. Red 2. The card slid slightly off of the previous one. 6 cards left.
Tsukasa had already been looking through his cards, going through each of them to see if he had the right one. “My first turn and I can’t even go…” He pulled a card from the bigger deck while sighing comically. 8 cards.
As Rui went, Nene looked over at the clock to check the time again. It had only been 13 of the 45 minutes she had said earlier. The clock’s hands seemingly slowed down as she looked.
Which was a good thing.
It meant delaying the amount of time left until the truffles were ready, before she served one to him and… Nene began thinking again before she was disrupted by Emu.
“Nene! It’s your turn again.” Emu had 5 cards and had placed a blue 5.
“R-right. Sorry.” She fumbled a bit, quickly looking away from the clock. Yellow skip.
“Hehe, Nene, you put the wrong color,” Rui giggled. Gosh, that felt like another arrow forcibly being pushed into her chest, digging through the narrow space of her ribs and piercing her heart. It didn’t help that Emu was giving her a discrete but not discrete knowing look, as if she knew what she was thinking.
“Sorry.” Nene apologized again, taking the card back and drawing one more card for her mistake. Back to 7 cards.
“How rude! That’s what you get for trying to skip me,” Tsukasa said with his free hand over his chest. He then put down a skip card aimed at Rui. “But I’ll forgive you for now.” He looked over and winked. Seems like he caught onto Emu’s expression.
Nene mentally facepalmed in a mix of embarrassment and I’m going to kill you both. If Tsukasa had noticed, Rui definitely noticed. But whatever. It’s fine. Once the chocolates were done, she could kick out Emu and Tsukasa by following Emu’s “plan,” then just casually say “so like first of all that heart that you may or may not have seen on that bag of chocolates? basically my mom ships us and she drew it but i didnt think i liked you at the time haha but today i realized i kinda sorta do have a crush on you just wanted to let you know—”
She caught herself rambling in her mind again. Calm down, Nene. You’re still in the middle of a game of Uno.
It was now Emu’s turn, after Rui looked over to Tsukasa like he was a wounded puppy. The rest of the game went on normally, with the debate on whether stacking was allowed occurring midway through. After a few rounds, with Tsukasa winning most of them, Nene looked back at the clock. 10 minutes left.
»»--------->·♡·<---------««
The 10 minutes passed by. She walked over to the fridge and took the candies out, peeling off the plastic wrap she put over it. Nene set it down on the table as the other three walked over, like cats coming together for their food. Rui just so happened to be standing the closest to her.
The universe loves her.
Or maybe she’s just overthinking every normal interaction to be romantic.
“Yum! Those look good. Can I have one Nene?” Emu smiled as Nene nodded, letting Tsukasa and Rui take one as well.
“Mm! They do taste good!” Tsukasa said through a mouthful of cacao as he had put the whole piece in his mouth at once. While Emu was eating her piece, she eyed Nene, then Rui, and then finally Tsukasa. The blond met her gaze for a split second, as if conveying their plan to leave and finally get Nene to suck it up and confess. “I agree,” Rui says. “It’s not too sweet nor bitter.”
“I’m glad you guys like them.” Nene replied, her voice carrying the slightest tremble you couldn’t pick up unless you really paid attention. The time before Emu and Tsukasa would eventually leave was coming fast, the clock seemingly ticking louder each minute. Nene took out 3 plastic bags, putting a few chocolates in each. “You guys can take them, I’m not really in the mood for sweets right now,” She said, which wasn’t really a lie. The nerves from what she was planning on doing in the upcoming minutes were suppressing her appetite.
“Are you sure?” Emu asked, seeing how she left none for herself. “You haven’t tried it yet though!” Tsukasa pointed out, opening up his ziploc bag to take some out.
“No, Tsukasa, it’s fine. I got enough candies from school aswell.” Nene tried adding some humor into her voice, but all that came was a dry laugh. She swallowed, feeling the slight tension in the air. Or was she, again, just imagining things? Rui didn’t say anything, but eyed her with the slightest bit of suspicion.
Shoot, she thought. Stop looking at me!
Emu and Tsukasa looked over at each other again for a split second, then to the clock, and back at Nene. “Oh, would you look at the time!” Tsukasa said a bit too loudly while looking at his wrist (He was not wearing a watch). I must take my leave!”
“Oh! Me too!” Emu exclaimed as well. “Thank you for the chocolates!” They both declared, walking out to the front door.
“See you two later.” Rui said while Nene waved. The front door opened, letting in a moment of light from the streets to come in, then closed. Nene walked over to lock it with a light click. She swallowed again, turning around back to Rui.
This is it, she thought. Now, how to start…?
“Um…” She began clumsily, her voice making her cringe. “I guess you can infer that I went to the store to get ingredients to make chocolates myself after what you said…” She gave a weak smile, her hand at the back of her neck. She could feel goosebumps.
“Hehe, maybe. Are you sure you don’t want to try one piece?” Rui looked over at the truffles in his bag. “The fruits of your labour?” Nene laughed, her slight awkwardness melting. “I’m sure. It probably just tastes like normal chocolate anyways. Like I said, I don’t really have an appetite right now either… And also I think I got enough from school earlier.”
Before any form of awkward silence could envelop them, she continued. “Actually, can I tell you something else?” Nene began again. Rui gave a nod, now leaning against the island of her kitchen.
However, before she could get any more words out, Rui’s phone rang. “Ah, sorry, give me a second.”
“No worries.” Nene replied, looking away as he picked up the phone. He didn’t have the speaker on, but it sounded like a familiar voice— his mother. He replied to her as she spoke, words like “Yes,” and “Alright, I’m coming.” He hung up, and looked back over.
“Sorry Nene, I have to go… my mom needs help with something.” He sounded… regretful. Sad. Apologetic. Or disappointed. Whatever adjective popped up in Nene’s mind when he spoke.
“Oh, no worries.” She said again blankly. “See you later then.”
Rui pocketed the chocolates, smiled and waved as he walked towards the door. Nene followed, opening it for him. “Bye, Nene.” He repeated her name as if he knew how much she loved hearing him say it. His hand lingered on her doorknob from the outside for a few seconds, then fell.
“Bye, Rui.”
He walked forward, then cut through the grass to his own house next door. She sighed, closing her door once she saw him make it to his porch. Compared to the liveliness the kitchen had just been with all four of them playing card games and whatnot, the house was now silent. She leaned her head back, closing her eyes and recalling the conversation she just had.
He had to go.
He got a phone call right before she was about to maybe pour her heart out.
Once again, how anticlimactic.
Once again, it was foolish to think something was going to happen.
Nene sighed, standing back up and walking over to the kitchen to clean the dishes that were dirtied from the chocolatiering. Her heart slowed down from its previous fluttering she didn’t notice, the thrill diminishing. She put on some dish gloves, got a sponge, and began washing away.